http://techcrunch.com/2016/02/16/giphy-closes-55-million-ser...
(In all seriousness, I think the recent GBoard is an example of how gifs can play a central role in the user's OS, which is prime real estate)
Of course, some investors are idiots, so you have to take their confidence with a grain of salt. But the past decade has proved that there is value to building a large and loyal userbase. As long as big companies continue to acquire those userbases for large price tags, investing in the userbases can remain a justifiably smart idea.
At this point I would say it's more of a platform than a business.